"New retrospective analysis of operating community wind projects finds that total employment impacts from completed community wind projects are estimated to be on the order of four to six 1-year jobs per-MW during construction and 0.3 to 0.6 long-term jobs per-MW during operations. In addition, when comparing retrospective results of community wind to hypothetical average absentee projects, construction-period employment impacts are 1.1 to 1.3 times higher and operations-period impacts are 1.1 to 2.8 times higher for community wind. Comparing the average of the completed community wind projects studied here with retrospective analysis of the first 1,000 MW of wind in Colorado and Iowa indicates that construction-period impacts are as much as 3.1 times higher for community wind, and operations-period impacts are as much as 1.8 times higher.

Ultimately, wind projects are a source of jobs and economic development, and community wind projects are shown to have increased impact both during the construction and operations-period of a wind power plant. The extent of increased impact is primarily a function of local ownership and return on investment. As such, policies that prioritize higher levels of local ownership are likely to result in increased economic development impacts. Furthermore, the increased economic development impact of community wind shown here should not be undervalued. As the wind industry grows and approaches penetrations in the U.S. electricity market of 20%, social opposition to new wind power projects may increase. Community wind could provide a valuable strategy for building community support of wind power -especially in communities that are new to wind power."